Several years ago, we started a tradition of sharing this photo and incredible story on the Friday before Christmas. It doesn’t matter how many times we’ve read this encounter, we’re still amazed. Whether you’ve read this story before or it’s your first time, we hope you enjoy it with a child-like fascination.
The above photo of a man who appears to be Santa Claus was taken by Annie Chavez-Hollingsworth in December 2007. She was at the chilly summit of Haleakala to see sunrise. Let’s let Annie describe what she saw,
“I have a gorgeous capture of the sunrise, despite the flurries, and cold that we experienced right before this. I have a wonderful picture of a man that looked like Santa Claus. This was right around Christmas as a matter of fact. The interesting thing about this morning, is that is was very cold. Everyone there shivering, but this man. He had shoulder length naturally white hair, mustache, and a beard. Invision Santa. He wore nothing but a Hawaiian short-sleeved shirt, and some Cargo shorts and sandals. I never once saw this man even remotely act like he was cold. I got his attention by saying: Santa, to get his attention, and as he turned, and he realized I was going to take his picture, he gestured with a thumbs up, and let me take his picture. As we were all leaving, I didn’t see where he disappeared to? Was Santa taking a quick breather just before he had to get back to the North Pole? No one else, seemingly, was looking at this Santa looking person, but me and my friend. We have examined the photo, and no one else seemed to see what we were seeing (friend in background). We had nothing on board altering our person.”
How cool is that?!
Annie also shared the following Haleakala sunrise photo.
Happy Aloha Friday and Mele Kalikimaka!
Sheila Beal
